Poll: So, How Are You Pronouncing Zelda: Tears Of The Kingdom?

Oh my god! It's obviously tears not tears!

C'mon people!

@Pat_trick no it’s not! It’s tears not tears. Get it right! 😂

Tears 😭 literally surround the main figure shown on the runes.

It's pretty clearly supposed to be pronounced "tiers", if that last trailer is anything to go by lore-wise.

Both makes sense based on what little is seen. Have no strong feelings on the name, as still no too little about the game to judge.

I certainly read it as the crying variant and somehow the rip variant didn't even occur to me until reading this article. Both would make sense though given the Sheikah symbol and whatnot, plus any possible emotional scenes, and then you have the possible tears in reality or what have you for the other side of the tear coin.

Whatever the case, I'm certain it's going to be a phenomenal game! Can't wait!

This poll was unnecessary

I definitely assumed it was tears as in crying.

It's either "tears (cry)" or purposefully ambiguous to evoke both, IMO.

Using "tears (torn)" as a noun and then following it with "of the Kingdom" is technically valid, but feels very awkward in English IMO. In this case I think most people would use a synonym for "tears" to evoke the idea of a kingdom being in ruins.

Then again, this is a Japanese company, and "Breath of the Wild" took some getting used to.

From the trailer it’s heavily implied that it’s tear from crying, listen to the moment when the name drops, it sound like a Sheikah tear dropping and even the animation sort of expands from the tear.

Also, I think this will be a very sad story for a Zelda game, it might even revolve around Zelda’s death.

It's clearly 'tears.' No two ways around it.

Tears as in crying, clearly. I hadn't even considered the alternative.

The name will take some getting used to. It doesn't grab me immediately like "Breath of the Wild" did.

As an non-native english speaker I have no clue what the difference between tears (cry) and tears (torn) is

Well if you think of it, in Skyward Sword you do trials and what to you collect? Tears.... Nuff Said.

It's tears people, as in crying! Why would it be tears like ripping? Did Ganon ripp a giant fart on the kingdom of Hyrule or something? Seriously it's not that difficult to understand.

Yes tears as in salty Kingdom. I am not a sadness fan, so even the game title starts bad. Still it is too early to have a real opinion on this game.

Tears (as in crying) of the Kingdom sounds a lot more elegant.

Tears (as in torn) of the Kingdom feels a lot more clunky in comparison.

Thankfully I'm pretty confident that it's the former and not the latter.

The Legend of Zelda: Boohoo Government

It had to be tears (as in crying), of course! Too awkwardly worded to use tear (as in ripped).

Either way, Japan confirmed it for me.

The Japanese subtitle is also "Tears [as in crying] of the Kingdom" written in katakana. (Similar to how they used katakana for "Breath of the Wild," too.)

Had it been TEARS (as in rips), the katakana would have been written differently. (テアーズ instead of ティアーズ)

I remember being wrong about the pronunciation of "Tear Ring Saga", an RPG for PlayStation. Because I misread it as "Tearing".

It was "Tear" as in crying all along.

And so is Zelda.

It's both! Because we will all have tears (rip) when we cry after we see the tears (cry) in the kingdom. Did I get it right?!

And why does the (uroboros?), uroboros the uroboros 69 style in the logo. Is this some mystical or religious meaning? I have seen something similar with three of them in the Online Elder Scrolls and just one in the Witcher loading screen I think.

Tee-Yars of the Kingdom

I mean, it’s clearly not the one that sounds stupid when you say it

I saw an IGN analysis video, and they pointed out that the Japanese trailer with the kanji/hiragana made it likely to be crying and not ripping but before that, I read it as crying tears anyway

Zelda dies, Hyrule cries. Calling it now.

I'm pronouncing it "Gnarly Broken Sword"

The spanish nintendo sites have them listed as “Tears of the kingdom” untranslated…. So… the mystery remains

It’s clearly both because it’s a “mystery box” name where you rack your brain over what it’s supposed to mean as opposed to Breath of the Wild which was a declarative statement on what the gameplay was about.

@Teksetter @Kabbij That is what I was waiting for. A translation of the Japanese title clears up this mystery.

It's a pun on tiers I thought? Since it shows all these different platforms/levels. Does this work in Japanese anyone?

The title has me wanting to play Key to the Kingdom now. Need to dig it out of storage. There will be tears if there are tears in the board.

Of course it's tears, how could anyone think it was tears?

@Enigk, I heard it was getting a restoration games remake soon
Edit: Nevermind the remake has already been released, (adds to cart)

Tears if it gets delayed!!

Third time's the charm, and it's always only the English localization and not Japanese that has this sort of thing. A Link to the Past, A Link Between Worlds, Tears of the Kingdom.

what with this, GoldenEye and everything else coming out from the direct, tears of joy for me!

I actually like the name a bit more than Breath of the Wild. Sounds more epic in my opinion.

Option 3: The Ar- well, you get it. Because Link, and by extent the player, is mostly just that in the eyes of the npc's. Collecting everything and combining it in weird ways to somehow poop out a working flying machine and such. Only to drop bombs or whatever.

I prefer calling it Kingdom of Tears, but that's just me being weird. Also tears = water tears = Zonai symbol which is shaped like an upside-down tear = Sheikah tear eye, but I'm sure that's already been figured out by a lot of people by now. This game has a lot to do with sky themes and reversal, so maybe the tears are flowing upwards towards the sky.

@VinylCreep Obviously. Of course we both know which one that is, and since we don't want to sound stupid, let's not say which one we both know sounds stupid.

People seriously think it's tears as in rips? Why?

Tears — as in crying — of the Kingdom has the right melancholic ring I want from this Zelda game. I'm fine with the sky theme, but I do hope they stay as far away as possible from the dopeyness of Skyward Sword in terms of character, world, and boss design. Zelda is always a mixture of mature and childish themes and vibes, but getting the balance just right is definitely an art.

@ModdedInkling
not this time, the japanese title is ゼルダの伝説　ティアーズ オブ ザ キングダム.
They use katakana here so "tears" uses a romanji pronunciation. so it can still be tear as in cry or tear as in rip. feels very intentional. and it makes sense seeing as how the country is being ripped apart and the hieroglyphs seem to point directly at the Sheika .

@Axecon. the yiga's symbol is a upside down sheika not the zonai

I just want to know what the context is. I mean Tears of the kingdom doesn't sound great when you say it out loud but hopefully it'll make sense once we start playing. Like how Breath of the wild was in reference to the survival elements etc.

@Axecon O-ORRR, tears, because the dark world will be created, or Lorule. The true calamity.

@Debo626 because the hyrule castle and assumedly other sky island are ripped directly from the ground. as shown in the first trailer.

I'm guessing both — there's no way they didn't anticipate the double-meaning when choosing the title — but crying seems to be the more natural interpretation. It fits much more closely with BotW's title, for one thing — more organic and personal.

While I think it flows naturally as in 'tears you might cry from your eyeballs,' I think the dual-meaning makes a lot of sense, as we are seeing lots of footage of Hyrule literally torn apart.

Tears as in rips makes no grammatical sense. You'd say there are tears IN something (tears in the fabric) not tears OF something, if you meant it in that way.
It's tears as in crying.

@bluemujika Surprised it got a remake as it is only going to be for those with nostalgia for the original. The box art stinks on the remake as well so I assume they didn't get the rights to the original art.

Tears as in rips of the kingdom and as Zelda games love a time shift, it's rips of time 7 tears in time of the kingdom

1 OoT
2 MM
3 WW
4 TP
5 SS
6 BotW
7 TotK
Think Nintendo will keep the any order you like but you will teleport through different timelines with the 7th taking place in this new game, collect the 6 (any order you like) and its on to the big boss that if you defeat will give you the 7th(tear/rip) and restore the kingdom to its idylic glorly

Edit: oh and each of the 6 timelines of the older games end in a dungeon with you collecting a tear/rip which repairs that timeline and the 7th is the biggest dungeon of them all, that no only restores another tear/rip but seals away the main antagonist

@Debo626 I suppose it’s to do with parts of the kingdom being lifted up off the ground but I personally believe it’s tears as in crying

Tears as in crying, the people are def hurt as they should lol, their kingdom is totally destroyed, people got killed, parents lost kids and kids lost Parents.
Im really curious how the story turns out. We know that ganondorf is returning in his physical form, or is original form maybe? Demise.

I'm 99.9 percent sure it's tears as in crying.

Teh Arse of the Kingdom.

Every Nintendo employee will pronounce it "Tears of the Kingdom" as in crying, b/c it just sounds better that way, then the opening narration of the game will include the words "The kingdom of Hyrule was torn asunder, in what is now referred to as "The Tear of the Kingdom". B/c that's the way Nintendo likes to roll.

If the title was singular, "Tear of the Kingdom", I could see debating the pronunciation more, but having tears be plural just means crying to me, tears of the Kingdom just sounds bad. 🤷

Tears, because the reused assets are making my eyes water.

NINJA APPROVED

I personally think its tears of pain, this is clearly some type of fallen kingdom in which iss society died long long ago, possibly due to some type of major tragedy. it honestly should've been called "Tears of the Fallen Kingdom" as It gives hint to the fact that we are exploring an abandoned civilization with remnants of what little life was left. And possibly relieving old pain. but thats just my interpretation

I'm guessing its tears as in 'crying tears' because the kingdom has been devastated and mostly destroyed. Also Link seems to be using tear drops to travel up through solid land. The tears that the title is refering to might be Hylia's tears which may somehow be used to purify the land below of Ganon's malice.

I actually hope it's tears as in torn. Sounds cooler that way - like a dope metal song.

I wouldn't be too surprised if the intent was both. The kingdom is literally ripped apart, but it makes sense for it also to be tears as in crying. A bit of wordplay, I think, that works both ways.

It has to be crying tears, to match up with "breath" of the wild, both bodily functions.

"What do you think of the new title?"

I'm sure it'll make more sense in the story.

What is the name in Japanese?
Did they keep it in English as well?

I think it's tears as in crying, especially since "Tears of the Kingdom" in the torn sense is really clunky-sounding. But the dual meaning idea is cool too.

It's tears as in crying, obviously.

Anyway, screw this game. Give me Wind Waker HD - it's a better Zelda any day of the week.

Can't you, y'know, look at the Japanese translation for guidance or something? It would be reasonable to assume it's crying. If it was as in ripping, it doesn't quite scan.

I think it's not about crying. To me the title is referring to those chunks of land that are floating in the sky, those are tears of the Kingdom. But I am not a native english speaker so I am not sure. The Queen's passing is not helping with my theory though.

considered torn as the islands tearing through the sky or time/space(Link too?). or is it the inhabits tears of joy finally done with this 100+ years long aftermath.

My hovercraft is full of eels.

Honestly it's just a bad name all around.

We need a tear pronunciation tear list.

It's tears as in crying tears. It's not up for debate or speculation it is what it is.

Been wondering about this the second i saw the name.. instinctly i pronounced it teers of the kingdom and I can see it being tares of the kingdom...since ya know hyrule is kinda torn up, but then again ..everyone is kinda sad about it, taking it back to Tears of the Kingdom

I think it's both. Knowing Nintendo, they don't shy away from double meanings.

@mariomaster96 Tears as in "things from your eyes when you cry" rhymes with fears, beers, etc. Tears as in "rips" rhymes with bears, fares, airs, etc.

This polls have only serve to see how unpopular my opinions are, i always choose the least voted ones 🥲

Torn makes more sense since the kingdom is being ripped up in pieces

It’s obviously tears like crying. People saying otherwise or natural contrarians.

@Zeldawakening And ‘Torn Kingdom’ is probably already a game or movie title.

@Mz3player I see, thx
Also I didn't know that bears is pronounced like airs, I though it's pronounced just like beers lol

I think the game will tackle space manipulation. (Like stoping time, or forwarding a bit ). I think it will be Tears (torn), like tearing the space time.

I've been saying it as in cry, but I did already think it may be a clever double meaning. That said, I wish they'd have pronounced it to avoid confusion.

I'm having fun saying the title both ways. You see a teardrop falling in reverse in one of the previous trailers, so teardrops play a visual motif, but thematically the kingdom has literally been torn apart into teardrops in the sky.

It's a such a beautiful double entendre, and a Zelda game once again is crafted in such a masterful and thoughtful manner.

Ok hear me our. Because I think I’m correct on this one:

It is both.

First, the world ‘tears’ because of what happened in the cave with the wizard in there (trailer 1). Parts of the land / Kingdom start to float, and chunks will fall down as these lands go higher and higher. These chunks are the Tears of the Kingdom (to cry). The newly made caves might also be the Tears of the Kingdom (ripped).

In trailer 2 you see water ‘falling upwards’ and Link also falling upwards. You also see a big mine rolling backwards while the surrounding color scheme turns grey and only the mine has color. In trailer 3 you see a chunk of the Kingdom also ‘falling upwards’, the surrounding color scheme turns grey and Link jumps on the chunk and also goes upwards.

I think these Tears will be the gateway to the floating islands. Link goes both into the sky towards the islands but also back in time (grey color scheme). He’s rewinding and you even see time stamps of the chunk in its pathway and of the mine. Manipulating verticality and time this way will be two of the major ‘sheikah slate runes’ which Link will be able to use.

There also may be a ‘Majora’s Mask’ time limit before a tear can’t be used anymore, who knows. So Link might have to choose his path carefully.

I think that another ‘sheikah slate rune’ will be the glider, link rotates his body while falling and the glider will automatically appear beneath him.

Did the person who wrote this article get the name of this game wrong and then felt weird about it so he decided to make an article about it to make himself feel better?

Maybe it's a play on words.

Crying. But now that I have read the article: Also tearing, a world torn apart. The floating islands are basically tears, but maybe you are also collecting tears. But its mostly crying about a lost kingdom, or the kingdom itself in mourning. Clever title!

Tears as in most Pokémon/Metroid/Direct comment sections…

Rip and tear! The chainsaw from the first game returns as the main weapon and the objective is to go on a rampage and eviscerate Hyrule.

Either one it sounds more awkward than Botw. and it confuses my 1/2 language brain.

Didn’t you have to collect wolf tears in Twighlight princess? So maybe some references to that game will be present?

@PinderSchloss Good job predicting this poll would exist

The fact that this is even being asked is causing me tears (from my EYEZ fyi).

Its obviously tears as in cry

It’s interesting to note that if it is tears (cry) that it could be referring to the games secretive tribe the Sheikah since the games teaser image shows the master sword with the Sheikah tech lines on it as well. Also the symbol behind the logo is the ouroboros (snaking eating itself) which signifies infinity.

The fact both meanings are correct makes it a perfect title.

Reminds me of Link's Awakening with its double meaning. And a Link to the Past. And Twilight Princess, in a way.

They've been doing this a long time.

Tiers of the Kingdom

@Gtask025

It is named in Chinese in the following way

薩爾達傳說 王國之淚

It means The Legend of Zelda Kingdom Tears

That last symbol (淚) is Lei, it means tears as in the ones that you cry.

The actual word in Japanese for tears (crying) pronounced namida has links with the concept of spirits as far as I could see doing some research in Google.

Teeyaaarsy Frorts!

The katakana in the japanese title confirms that its tears as in crying

It is absolutely beautiful to get to the end of the article and to see a preorder option for the game with its box art. It really makes you realize that we’re only 8 months away from this game…

The Japanese name is "ティアーズ オブ ザ キングダム" literally, "Tears of the Kingdom". Hope that's cleared things up.

The non-crying version of tears never even popped into my mind when pronouncing the title. Huh.

@Friendly Those are great observations!

Do you think Tears of the Kingdom could also allude to the story? Perhaps Ganon has created tears, or rips, in the timeline, and fixing those tears coincides with Link wearing long hair and the green outfit?

Perhaps he found a way to destroy Skyloft, and it's up to you to put it back together? Or perhaps to create a new one, and the second Skyloft is what we see from Skyward Sword.

Tears (rhymes with pairs) makes no sense grammatically. It could be "Fragments of the Kingdom" or "Shards of the Kingdom" or whatever. A tear isn't of anything. If you tear up some paper, you don't have "tears of paper" you have bits of paper, or pieces. You could have Tears in the Kingdom but not of.

@therourke So I don't know if you're joking by not specifying or it's simply an oversight, but eitherway, for other people's sake, that's "TIAAZU" or "tears" as in crying.

I can’t believe this is even An argument.

What are the names in other languages? Surely the ambiguity doesn't work the same way in Japanese for example?

Well it is obviously a bit of both meanings, the place is torn apart and like real tears (from crying) they will eventually fall into the ground(the kingdom)

@Olliemar28 To prove my point 😂 Either way I had a good laugh about it.

And now that I know my prediction was so on point:
“Nintendo shadowdrops Zelda Oracle remakes as a post-Direct surprise”🤞

the kingdom is definetly torn apart and is probably causing their inhabitants to shed a tear.

@Pat_trick Oh, thanks! I have NO idea why i thought it was tears. Tears makes wayyy more sense.

@ModdedInkling

Nah, "ティ", which would be pronounced Tee-ah, is just an English word that's been translated into one alphabet then back to another. The second part is like ... "ob zekin dum" which is just English words using Japanize sounds.

Even in romaji it is just "Tiāzu obu za Kingudamu".

Effectively, this game only has an English title. Given if they had used Japanize they could use different words for the tears you shed for a lover leaving you, a personal friend dying, or a national tragedy and "rend" isn't anywhere close to any of them ... this double meaning is the intention.

I think the better question is ...

WTF is with Monolith Soft and Ouroboros?

Ouroboros is OLD (like, literally the oldest symbol we know of) and means a lot of different things over time, but in Japan you generally learn the vanilla Greek meaning; it the first being, the centre of the universe is it's mouth, and it fuels the constriction of everything by devouring it's own tail. The old dies to make way for the new.

Having TWO of them eating each other's tails is a cycle of good and evil. That's Zelda in a nutshell ... Hyrule creates a word, Gannon uses that creation to make his own dark version, Gannon is defeated to bring a new golden age ... and so on.

So I would say that we're looking at breaking that cycle in this game. Tears (crying) for the death of Hyrule which has to be torn from the cycle and made into something new.

Or maybe the graphics team thought it was a cool visual.

Wait, what happened to Oracle of Seasons & Oracle of Ages getting a new release?

The name is fine, but I’m loving the acronym, TOTK — nice.

What’s funny is the Japanese only uses the English title also. But Japanese differentiates more on pronunciation. So the title uses ティアーズ which would be for crying, not ripping.

But I hope it has the double-meaning intentionally, that’d be a fun element.

@Ryan_Again

I'm not a native speaker but I spend a lot of time in Japan, and I'm almost sure that's not accurate. I mean I could be wrong, I have been before ... the language is hard, yo!

The Japanese title is just the English sounds. "アーズ " translates as "The English word "tear"", not any Japanize word. In other words, while it's pronounced "tee-ah", in Japan you would pronounce the word "tear" as "tee-ah" even if it meant rip an tear. You also literally can't say "tear" as in rhyming with bear because the R sound in Japan is "ta" or "ah", so bear is bee-ah. So it's not really giving us any insight ... other then Nintendo problably spent a LOT of time finding a word that was ambiguous in both languages, both written and spoken.

Even my orphan word index (what they call it when the Japanize use a word that comes form English, so basically a Japanese to English dictionary) translates it as "涙", which is the Kanji for "Tears of personal sadness" or "破損" which is to damage or rip apart. So (as is common in this case) the Japanize usage is clear that it has two meanings based on the English Homograph.

In fact there seems to be some conversation in Japan about how it has a triple meaning, because "破損" can also mean to distort of corrupt something so such that it's no longer part of the original. So it's like they are deliberately using the English to communicate a LOT with that one word.

IGN pronounced it tears (crying) and Nintendo hasn’t corrected them as of yet.

Uh, the only way that makes sense?

Tear like rip makes no sense. Furthermore the tears are a physical item you can see on Link's belt. Seems you collect them somehow.

As has been pointed out numerous times, the phonetically unambiguous Japanese title confirms that the official pronunciation is /tɪər/ (rhyming with ‘ear’ and not ‘bear’).

I imagine that the designers were well aware of the ambiguity of the word ‘tear’ when naming the game though, and may have chosen this title not despite, but because of it.

The fact that kingdom has literally been torn apart is fairly central to the gameplay and world design, and navigating those rifts/fissures/tears in the world looks to be an awful lot of fun!

Anyway, more importantly: is it scone (rhyming with ‘gone’) or scone (rhyming with ‘cone’)?

@Maxz

I've brought this up before as well, but it's Japanize title is just English. And the English word "tear" is pronounced "tee-ah" regardless of it's meaning. That's common with Homographs.

Also the word rhyming with bear is really hard to say in Japan because "r' sounds like "ta". Bear, for example, would be bee-ah ... so tee-ah can rhyme with either way you say "tear" in English, really.

Obviously it's rips & tears, in all the gameplay they showed it specifically shows the kingdom torn apart; parts of the world that were usually on land are floating up in the sky, ripped from the earth.

I will call it Zelda Tears, not Zelda TOTK, that looks dumb. And Tears is like that thing Zelda does when she cries.

Bore of the Wild 2

The Japanese title confirms it's tears as in crying...

It could be either or both but I believe Tears of the Kingdom (pronounced teers/tiers) sounds better. It also has the same artistic feel as Breath of the Wild does. I'm guessing we'll only truly know whenever they give a news update/the translator slips and they have to publicly correct them

Tears of joy? Screw you bunch of optimists! This world is a cess pit! Join me in sad land!! Lol

I would say : "larmes" !

It probably works both ways. I am tired of the 15 seconds of gameplay shown each time. It's not artsy after the first time. I'm ready for a real trailer and info. Can you still hunt and make food? Weapons other than the master sword? New enemies? Anything besides him jumping like skyward sword.

I genuinely thought it was tears, as in 'rips'; that sounds better and makes more sense to me. Tears, as in a Kingdom in shreds and disarray.

It’s ToTK so I’m just going to pronounce it “TokTok”.

@HeadPirate Cheers, but I think the Japanese title confirms it’s Tears as-in to Cry. It’s not ambiguous.
Because it’s ティアーズ and not テァアーズ or just テアーズ which would be for Ripping.
I live in Tokyo and asked around, there’s no hesitation from the native Japanese I’ve spoken to, it is 涙 of the Kingdom.
You’re 3rd association is interesting, 破損, but I don’t see how you got there. Because that sounds like “Ha Son” in English pronunciation of the Japanese.

@Ryan_Again

破損 is suggested as a translation of the English "tear" in my book, it's not from pronunciation. A friend of my in Japan suggested that whole triple meaning thing based on that.

Thanks for the insight. I'm in Canada right now so I don't have the benefit of just asking around!

That's really odd from an English standpoint because the "tears of the Kingdom" is not grammatically standard. It would mean "the rips that are owned by the Kingdom" in that format, as opposed to tears IN the Kingdom which is how it seems to be used. Haha, tears of the kingdom is actually correct if using the US slang as in "going on a tear" ... my god it would be such a great twist if that was the meaning. Hyrule is just going on a tear and kicking everyones butts!

"Tears (as in rip)? "
Loads shotgun with malicious intent

Who pronounces those words differently? Strange.

As in crying, obviously. Goldeneye isn't anything to celebrate either, we shouldn't support anti-consumer behavior. If you're paying a monthly fee to play an online game that you're already paying another monthly fee to access, you're a fool. It's just like paying for anti-consumer-pass; you're literally renting content and being ripped off thinking because it's so "cheap" it's a value... It isn't! Goldeneye wasn't a great MP game back in the day, and it's not going to hold up at all today in any capacity. The best part of that game, and any game factually, is the single player campaign. A hollow deathmatch is just that, hollow. It's shallow content for the feebleminded who can't handle anything more complex than "allow auto aim to line up your headshot and hope between lag and reaction timing it connects". That's why it's hilarious when people think online gaming takes "skill". If it's an MMO with copious amounts of content then fine, but an anti-consumer GAAS like Destiny 2 or CoD? Worthless. Goldeneye will launch and be forgotten just as quickly.